Fame

This is the final installment of my story, Fame. After some last minute rereading, I've decided not to change the final part of my story. I wanted to say that this story has meant a lot to me. It has, over the last few months, helped me keep my sanity more than any of you will know, and I'm honored that you guys have enjoyed reading it. I hope that it was as much a pleasure to you as it was for me to write it.

This will be, quite possibly, my last story for nifty. In addition to a break that I desperately need, I am working on other projects that will take me away from my writing a little bit.

There are so many people that I would like to take the time to thank personally, but frankly, the list is far too long to put here without making this whole thing overly wordy. To that end, to everyone that has helped me with editing, revising, editing, revising (and so on), I send a very heartfelt thank you. It has been an honor working with you, and I hope that the future, for you, holds things that are amazing and wonderful.

Should any of you want to make any comments, I would appreciate hearing them. My email is thefuturecanadian@yahoo.CA and the yahoo group address is http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/futurecanadiansgroup . Please feel free to drop by and take a look at my other writings.

With the warmest of regards... David :)

Fame Epilogue "The Right Man (Christina Aguilera)"

Ian sat at the piano, gently playing a few classical pieces that he'd been practicing for some time, in preparation for this day. As he played, Jen was getting ready behind the stage, warming up her vocal chords. Joey, Danny, and Pete were standing just outside the cathedral.

At just the perfect moment, Jen walked from behind the stage and stood beside where Ian was playing the piano. For a moment, Ian stopped and let his hands rest. He'd been playing for almost an hour, and he hadn't played for that single length of time in some time. Jen watched the back door of the grand hall so that she could signal Ian to start playing again. With a flick of her wrist, Ian began to play the final "Promenade" from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. As he played, the back door flung open and Joey walked into the room, with an older woman on her arm that Ian assumed was Leticia's mother. He escorted her to the front of the cathedral and allowed her to sit on the front row of the left side of the two sets of rows of pews. She kissed his cheek before he turned and walked to the right side of the stage and took his predetermined place. Danny was the next to walk in, with Olga on his arm. Olga was all smiles as Danny escorted her to the front row on the right side of the church. After making sure that she was comfortable, he turned and took his place beside Joey.

Next to enter the hall was Pete, along with his best friends from childhood, Chavi and Mong. (Those weren't their real names, but no one bothered to ever remember what those actually were. It was even joked about that Pete didn't know their real names.) The officiant for the day, Father Pedro Medeira, walked just in front of Pete. As they reached the altar, Chavi and Mong took their places beside Ian and Danny while Pete stood at the bottom of the steps.

As Ian played through the remainder of the Promenade' (which he'd played at least seven times already), the doors closed. That was a cue for Ian to switch what he was playing. After a quick moment to rest his hands, he started playing Schubert's "Piano Sonata in F-Sharp Minor, D. 571". When the music started, the door opened just far enough for the flower girl, a little girl who bore the same name as her great-grandmother, Maria, walked into the room. She slowly walked up the aisle as she threw out delicate rose and flor de maga' petals from the Puerto Rican hibiscus tree. It took her almost five minutes to get to the altar, but she took the place she'd been assigned during the rehearsal the night before. She looked at Danny, who smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. When she got to her place, another door opened. Into the chamber pops a little boy carrying a pillow with the wedding rings attached to it. He was a little brown boy that everyone the night before had found so cute. He and Maria played incredibly well, that is as soon as he realized that she was the boss. When he reached the altar, he took his place along side Pete on the steps. Pete rubbed his hair, messing it up a little bit and smiling. Ian smiled a little bit as well, knowing exactly that kid's situation.

At the beginning of the third movement in the sonata, the first bridesmaid appeared. She was wearing a simply designed dress made of black and purple fabric. It was cut just below the knees, and she wore heels that made her look inches taller than she actually was. Her hair was straightened, but it was flowing freely as she walked toward the alter. She smiled as she took her place at the bottom of the stairs, across from Joey.

The second, third, and fourth bridesmaids all came in in the same fashion, taking their places on the steps leading to the altar. It wasn't until well into the fourth, and final movement of the piece that the maid of honor came into the hall, smiling as she took her place. Ian finished the song as the door remained closed for a second. After a quick second to regroup himself, Ian began to play again. Jen took the microphone to her mouth. If there was one thing they'd all learned about Leticia, she liked to do things normally, but on her own terms.

Ian played through the quite complex introduction to the song. He and Jen had to sit down and figure out how it was all going to work when Pete asked them to perform the song as his gift from him to Leticia. The back doors opened and those who'd traveled from all over the world to see this event stood to honor the entering bride. She was tall, slender, and her skin was perfect and smooth. She wore a short, sleeveless dress, white, with a matching hat atop her head and a little veil that only half covered her face. As the man she was marrying, her smile went from ear to ear. It was a beautiful, radiant smile.

"So many years have gone by," Jen started to sing, "Always strong, tried not to cry...Never felt like I needed a man...to comfort me in life...But I'm all made up today...A veil upon my face...But no father stands beside me...to give this bride away. Well, I'm standing in the chapel...wearing my white dress...I have waited for this moment...With tears of happiness...Here I leave behind my past...By taking the chance...I've finally found the right man." Jen sang as Leticia walked up the aisle to a bridegroom that was smiling ear to ear. Jen continued, "Thoughts racing through my mind...as I'm gazing down the aisle...that my future will mend the memories...torn between father and child...My emotions overload...cause there is no hand to hold...there's no shoulder here to lean on...I'm walking on my own. Here I go...Now I'm standing at four corners to have and to hold...Now my love you stand beside me...to walk life's winding road...And I owe it all to you...For taking the chance...You've shown me there's a right man...'Cause I never knew a right man...Well, I'm standing in the chapel, ready to confess...that I've waited for this moment...with tears of happiness...Now I leave behind my past...by taking the chance...Ohh!!! Now I'm standing at four corners...to have and to hold...Now my love, you stand beside me...To walk life's winding road...And I owe it all to you...for taking the chance..." The music slowed after a second, with single notes being played after a three note pause. "And one day, my little girl, will reach out her hand...she'll know I found...The Right Man..." Leticia's mother moved from where she was standing as the rest of the crowd sat to stand beside her daughter.

"Way to go, Mommy," Maria yelled as the crowd giggled at the child's faux pas as Jen sat on the bench next to Ian.

"Who gives this woman to this man to be married?" the priest asked.

"I, her mother, give this woman to be married to this man," she said as she took her daughter's right hand and placed it in Pete's left.

"Pedro Scott. Do you come to this union freely and without coercion?" the priest asked.

"I do," Pete answered, his strong masculine voice echoing throughout the hall.

"And do you, Leticia Gómez Acevedo, come to this union freely and without coercion?"

"I do," her soft, feminine voice filling the room, as well. The priest motioned for them to step up all the stairs to the top of the stage, which they did.

The priest continued with the ceremony as normal from that point. As everyone gazed at the altar and the proceeding nuptials, Ian let his mind wander to the people in the room. He looked first at his mother who was sitting patiently, solitarily, as she watched the ceremony. He recalled her always having been a strong woman, despite the adversity that life threw at her. She'd survived racism after coming to the US to make a better life for herself and for Ian. She'd survived Graduate School to earn her doctorate in not her first or her second, but her third language. She'd survived all the trials that went along with raising him. She'd survived Danny, and she'd survived Pete, who'd given her more hell as a teenager than Danny and Ian put together. She'd fallen in love with an amazing man, lived with him in the bonds of matrimony for almost fifty years, until cancer took him from her and from the family. She'd survived the loss in her own way, by devoting herself to her sole granddaughter, Maria. Some from outside the family said that she took Dan's passing better than Danny, Pete, or Ian, who'd taken it worse than any of the other children for his own reasons.

He looked at his Aunt Gloria, sitting two rows behind his mother. She'd dealt with her own battles in life. Unlike Olga, she hadn't ever found the love of her life, so she devoted herself to raising her son, Matias, as best she could. He'd given her four grandchildren, two boys and two girls that she doted on as much as Olga doted on Maria.

Together, the two women represented the energy of the family. It was through their light that life went on. It was by their hands and their graces that life didn't tear apart at the seams.

He looked just a few rows behind her to find Aaron and JJ sitting there watching. They were sitting in the family section of the church, just where they belonged. JJ was an award winning gymnastics coach that had personally seen to it that four of the gymnasts he'd coached went on to win Olympic gold. Aaron, after graduating college with a degree in engineering, decided that politics was going to be his cup of tea. To that end, he started working for the Democratic Party of Alabama, working his way up the ladder of success until he was asked to run for a congressional seat in Alabama, which he won easily. But it didn't stop there. A year before the wedding, Aaron ran for and won the seat that former President Jansen had once occupied. He became a Senator from Alabama. Between them sat the daughter they'd adopted a few years before, a lovely little girl they'd named Callie.

Then came time for the communion, and Ian was up again to play. Performing Bach's `Air on a G String', as requested by the bride and groom. The priest prayed, gave them their wafers and wine, and prayed again until the song had ended. This was actually Pete's first communion after embracing Catholicism to earn the right, in his mother-in-law's eyes, to marry her daughter.

After that, Ian tried his best to pay attention to the wedding, as it was about to end. "And now, Ladies and Gentlemen," the priest said as he turned Pete and Leticia to the crowd, "I present for the very first time Mr. Pedro and Ms. Leticia Scott!" There were tears of joy for the couple, as well as applause. Pete was all smiles as he and his new bride walked down the steps as Ian played a piano only version of "Music for Royal Fireworks" originally scribed for an orchestra by Handel, the same composer that gave us "The Messiah". Each of the bridesmaids and groomsmen left as Ian played the song again. After Maria and Pablo (as the little boy was called) were the last to leave. Danny returned to fetch Olga as the crowd stood. Joey returned to get Leticia's mother as Ian continued to play. In a surprise moment, as Ian played, Danny returned and escorted Jen from where she'd been the whole time out of the church. When Ian finished that round of the song, the crowd applauded him as well.

"Friends. Ian Scott and Dr. José Ruiz are giving a special party to honor the new couple at their residence. If you would like to attend, directions to their home are on cards just outside the main sanctuary. Please, enjoy this day that the Lord has given to us all," he said with a smile before he returned to the altar. "And remember," he said as he stood there, "the confessional will be open tomorrow at nine in the morning for those who might need it!" The crowd laughed as they began to file out of the building. Joey fought his way through the crowd to meet Ian, who'd decided to stay behind for just a few minutes.

"You were amazing," Joey said as he stood there in front of Ian. Despite the fact that they'd been together for over two decades, Ian still felt a tingling when Joey was around. Joey felt the same thing for Ian.

"I wasn't as amazing as you were," Ian said as he stood and adjusted Joey's tie a little bit. "I was looking at your ass the WHOLE time."

"Ian. We're in a church," Joey said with a wicked smile on his face.

"I know," Ian responded. "I wasn't talking about doing it in here...or anything."

"Then where?"

"Tonight. We'll sneak out onto the beach after everyone is gone or gone to bed. I'll kiss you once or twice, then we'll get busy."

"My! What a sweet talker you are, Mr. Silva!"

"You make me strive for such things, Dr. Ruiz," Ian said as Joey lifted him off the stage where he'd been the whole time and set him gently on the floor.

"God! You're fifty and can still lift me up like that!"

"I know! You're fifty and can still get things up like you could 20 years ago!"

"Ay Joey! So let's get going. If we don't, our house will be ruined!"

"It's going to be anyway," Joey said.

"That's why we hired people to clean in the morning, though. Right?"

"Right!" Joey responded as the two walked from the church, side by side. As they left, there were still people standing in the parking lot. They spoke to Ian and Joey for a second and then allowed the two to depart so that they could get to the party.

They climbed into Joey's convertible and let the top down. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon after all. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze coming from the Atlantic made it all the better by cutting the heat to a bearable temperature. It took them almost thirty minutes to get back to the house on the beach that they'd purchased after they'd both effectively retired years before. They'd purchased the home in the Ceará state of Brazil as a vacation residence, a place to pass the time when the winters in Alabama got too cold, but after one season there, they decided that they didn't want to go back to Alabama and decided to change their residence to their South American estate.

When they arrived, the people they'd hired to direct the flow of traffic made them a path to the garage to park the car. They climbed out to the screams of Maria, Danny and Jen's daughter. She could be heard going wild for her uncles at any point they were around her. "EEN! JOKEY!" she called for them. She begged for Ian to pick her up so that she could hug him. Then she reached her arms toward Joey to take her, which he did. "I love you guys!" she said.

"We love you, too, Kid," Joey said as he smiled at Ian.

"So will y'all take me shopping tomorrow and buy me something?" she asked.

"Way to get straight to the point, Kid," Ian joked as she turned and stuck her tongue out at him. He stuck her tongue right back at her as they walked to the house.

"MARIA LUISA SCOTT!" Danny said as they walked in the front door. "What did I tell you about going out?"

"You told me not to," she confessed.

"You know what that means, then, since you didn't do what I said?"

"What?"

"That when we get home, no cartoons for a week," Danny said.

"But what about while she's here?" Ian asked, giving Danny the `I'm an uncle, so she'll be able to do whatever she wants' look.

"That means that she can only watch cartoons when I'm not looking," Danny said with a smile.

"Thank you, Een," she said as she reached out her arms for him. Safely in his arms, she put hers around his neck. He hugged her tightly, remembering the day that she joined them on Earth. It had been a long and hard pregnancy for Jen. Since losing the baby almost two decades before, she and Danny had tried to get pregnant again, but with little success. The three times that she did get pregnant, they lost the babies just a few weeks after finding out that she was pregnant, just as before. When they found out she was pregnant again, they tried to be hopeful but cautious. When Maria came into the world nine and half months later, the delivery was just as rough as the pregnancy had been. It took almost a day and a half for Maria to show herself to the world, but when she did, everything changed. Everyone seemed a little happier, especially since Mom and Baby were both healthy and OK. Ian recalled the moment when Danny showed her to the world from the nursery. He was still crying as swells of pride and joy came to the surface. Ian and Joey, who were both naturally her uncles bought her more shit than any baby should have, including a silver rattle from Tiffany's in New York among other things that she'd be able to give to her children one day. In fact, the dress she was wearing that day was a gift from her loving uncles Een' and Jokey', as the babe had named Jen's brother as a result of the corny jokes he would always tell her that always made her laugh hysterically.

After a second, they joined the rest of the party outside. Ian and Joey spoke to Aaron and JJ for a moment, and then with Jen. Olga was walking around snapping a million photos of everyone there. She had to have one of Ian and Jen together, for the photo book she was keeping of the occasion. She then moved on to people that she didn't even, introducing herself and then taking the pictures. Before long, she had Bernarda (Leticia's mom) helping her out with everything.

In a moment, Ian grabbed a cocktail from the open bar and sat at an unoccupied table on the huge back deck of his house. He looked at all the people having fun and enjoying themselves. He looked up at the house for a second and realized that they'd lived there for some time and he'd never noticed the splendor of the residence from that angle. It was tall, three stories, with seven bedrooms, including his and Joey's, each of which had its own bathroom. The main level was so vast that it contained the living room, complete with wooden floors, and a kitchen with the same flooring and stone countertops. All of the fixtures and hardware in the kitchen were chrome and all the appliances were stainless. On one end, closest the beach, there was a large deck almost the same size as the huge living room. On the other side, still close to the beach but not directly out over it, there was a large porch that was covered and screened that Joey and Ian used as their `dining room', complete with a table that could comfortably seat 10 people. From the back deck, there was access to the beach, which was only meters away from where Ian sat at that point.

He remembered the day that it was purchased like it was the day just before that. Ian and Joey had both retired from their respective positions. Ian's retirement came after his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Joey's came after successfully completing his sixth novel. (Four of his novels, by the way, had been turned into movies by and up and coming Puerto Rican filmmaker who longed to create a movie based in his homeland.) They'd been doing some traveling and decided that they wanted a vacation home at the beach. They looked around Alabama and Florida, but nothing met with their standards and expectations. They liked a house in Puerto Rico, but someone else bought it by the time they could make an offer. They looked at a house in Belém, in northern Brazil, that they liked, but this house had caught their attention as they drove down the coast on their way to visit Gloria, Matias, and his family in Rio. They looked at it, walked through it, and then looked at each other. They told the agent that they'd have to get back to him, and walked to the car. Ian remembered Joey saying something about leaving the keys inside the house and so he ran back in. Unbeknownst to Ian, the keys were in his pocket the whole time, but he needed a ruse to get back into the house without Ian suspecting anything. As he walked in, he told the guy that they wanted the house, and that he would have the money wired to the owner as soon as they got back to the States a couple weeks in the future. As a deposit, Joey left the man a check for $2,500. For him, with the success of his books and the subsequent movies, it was a drop in the bucket.

They drove to Rio, as planned. They flew back to the US, as planned, and Joey made good on his promise to wire the money to the guy. That very night, Ian mentioned something about the house as they sat in the living room watching Star Trek V: the Undiscovered Country for the fourteen-millionth time. Joey smiled. He couldn't hold up the ruse any longer, so he confessed what he'd done to Ian. Ian was a little taken aback, but proud of the fact that Joey'd been able to hide it for so long. Joey, after all, wasn't one that could normally keep something from someone, especially from Ian. A few days later, all the necessary paperwork came to their house in Alabama. Dan looked over it, despite the fact that he'd retired years before and didn't fully understand Brazilian property law. A week or so after that, they were visiting their home in Brazil for the first time. Given that they had no furniture yet, they opened up a sleeping bag and placed it over an air mattress on the floor of the third story suite they would share together. They spent the night next to one another.

Ian came back to reality as Jen walked up to him. They talked for a few minutes about her singing; Ian could tell that her voice was about to go because of the way it was cracking. To that end, the two of them walked into the house to fix her a glass of tea, to at least ease the scratchiness and pain in her throat.

As they walked around staff that had been hired to prepare food for the evening, Ian turned on the kettle to boil some water for Jen's tea. They talked about a few things and laughed about others, just as they'd been doing for years. She had, after all, been around for two decades. Ian thought about her life for a few minutes. Shortly after his comeback single was released in 2008, she and Danny were lying in bed talking, according to the stories they both told, about dreams and hopes for the future. Jen confessed that she'd thought several times about trying out for American Idol, but she never thought she'd be able to be a success at singing, despite the fact that a song that she'd written (No Air) was well on its way to becoming Ian's second number one from the English CD. Danny convinced her that she should at least give it a shot, so when the auditions were in Birmingham a couple of weeks after that, she showed up. With Danny, Ian, Joey, Pete, Olga, Dan, and Gilda there to support her, she walked into the room to audition for Simon, Paula, and Randy. Thirty seconds into the song that she was singing, Simon asked her to stop. He gave her a nod and turned to Paula, who smiled and gave her approval. Randy welcomed her to Hollywood. As she got the golden ticket, she couldn't help but be excited. When she walked out of the room waving the piece of paper, Danny picked her up and twirled her around in the air. For the next few months, Danny was in Hollywood to see every single performance she did. Almost every week for the first few of finals, Jen was in the bottom two, narrowly hanging onto the hope that she would make it to the final. It passed that way until Latin Night, about six weeks into the competition. For the performance, she pulled out all the stops. She wore a nice, long, sleek white dress. She straightened her hair and pulled it up into a bun. In the bun was a single Maga flower, similar to the ones that had been thrown at the wedding earlier, placed strategically into her hair. Performing "Tú" by Jennifer Lopez, she captivated the audience to the point that she wasn't in the bottom again for the rest of the competition. That performance garnered a standing ovation from Paula.

On the final night of the competition, after all the votes had been tallied and the performers were eliminated except for her and one other girl, nerves were running wild. Ian was present for that performance, as was Joey. The family was also there to cheer on their little girl. At one point in the evening, Ryan came up to Ian with a camera, asking him what he thought about the way that things had worked out. Ian complimented the other girl's talent, but said that, for obvious reasons, he had to be firmly in the camp for Jen's victory. By that time, the whole world knew that Ian was dating her brother and that she was dating his.

In the final moments of the competition, there were just three people on stage: Ryan, Jen, and the other girl. Ryan talked to both of them; both of them said thank you to their families and fans for putting them at that place in that moment. Then the moment came.

"And your 2009 American Idol is..." Ryan said, pausing for dramatic effect, "...JEN!" Confetti and balloons began to fall from the ceiling as the announcement was made. Jen took her mic as the other girl went from the stage. She talked to Ryan for a second as her first single, a song she and Ian had written together, began to play. The song went, as most AI winners first singles do, straight to number one. Who did she knock out of the top spot for four weeks straight? IAN! Of course, there was no one prouder of that feat than Ian himself.

Jen went on to have three top selling CDs before she decided to cool off for a little while. The one thing she could count on, she said, was the love and support that she got from Danny. At their wedding, almost five years after their engagement, Jen and Danny pledged to love and support one another through the tests and trials of time. Neither of them seemed to forget those vows. Despite the fact though that she didn't record music anymore, she still worked in the industry, taking over Ian's BrAm record label as CEO upon his retirement.

After Jen consumed her tea, they returned to the party, a party at which Pete and Leticia had finally arrived after stopping by their hotel to `change clothes'. When they got out to where everyone else was, they walked up to where Joey, Danny, Pete, and Leticia were standing.

"Welcome to the family," Ian said as he hugged his newest sister-in-law.

"Thank you," she said, all aglow from the event.

"Pete. Your tie isn't straight," Ian joked.

"Kinda like my oldest brother!" Pete fired back to the laughter of everyone in the circle.

"Good one, Petey!"

"Uncle Petey!!!" Maria said as she came over to where they were.

"Hey gorgeous!" Pete said as he picked her up.

"So what do I call your wife now?" she asked Pete, who looked at Leticia.

"Sweetie, you can call me anything you want to," Leticia said as she rubbed Maria's back.

"So...let's see. I have Een, Jokey, Daddy, Mama, Petey, and Pablos...so I'll call you...Leti. Is that OK?"

"That's perfect," Leticia said as she sweetly smiled at the little girl.

Ian watched the goings on with a smile. Leticia was sweet; she was smart; she fit in with the family perfectly. She knew how to joke with all of them, and she could hold her on. Pablo was truly lucky to have her as a mother; he was her world. Ian recalled the first time that they'd met. It was at a barbecue at Olga and Dan's house that Pete had asked them to arrange about two years earlier. When she arrived, she was skeptical. Pete had told her that he was related to Ian and Jen Scott, one by blood and the other by marriage. At first she didn't believe him, until she arrived to find both of them sitting on the sofa as their husbands were outside arguing about the barbecue. After getting over the initial star-shock, she joined them for a drink in the living room. She learned that they were the regular people that they were. Pete had already become enamored with her, but it was in those times that she, a single mother of a little boy, grew to trust Pete completely, something that allowed her to love him without fail. She was, for Pete, what Jen was for Danny. She was for Pete was Olga had been for Dan. She was for Pete what Joey had been for Ian for so long.

The couple mingled for a little while, talking to all the people that had come to the festive event. Ian couldn't help but watch his little brother, remembering the kid he'd been and the man he'd become. He'd been inquisitive and questioned everything. He fought with everyone, but in a good way. At 12, he read War and Peace because one of his teachers told him that it couldn't be done. While he openly detested the book, he was ready to prove everyone wrong.

This defiance to authority went well into his teens. At 14, he took an older girl's virginity because one of his friends said that it couldn't be done. Sex because his first addiction, though. With one taste of the sweet fruit of femininity, he was hooked. He would do whatever with whomever he could. He didn't discriminate either. He loved all girls, from small to big girls, black, white, Latin, or Asian. He confessed to Danny and Ian later that his first three-way happened when he was 16. He'd beaten Danny by a good year and a half with that. During that time, though, he was also developing some really bad habits. At 16, he started smoking; at 17, he tried alcohol for the first time. He was stopped for DUI a few weeks after first trying alcohol. If the cop hadn't been a friend of Danny's back in the day, Pete could have been in some serious trouble. The cop took him home and arranged for a tow truck to bring the car that Ian had bought for his 16th Birthday back to Dan and Olga's house. The cop wouldn't leave though until he talked to Dan and Olga, who weren't happy, to say the least.

They grounded him for a month and took away his car, but Pete found ways to get away from them. He would convince girls to sneak to his house late and night and pick him up. They would go somewhere, get some liquor, and then go wherever and fuck until the buzz wore off.

A month after his run in with the cops, Dan and Olga got a random call in the middle of the night. Pete had sneaked out of the house and gone to a party with Chavi and Mong. At the party, the three of them got so high that they couldn't function. Some girl at the party had called them from Pete's cell phone, telling them where they were and then just hanging up the phone.

Dan hopped out of bed, put on some clothes and went out to get the three of them. He managed to get them in the car with little assistance from either of them. He took Chavi and Mong home, waking their parents in the process and explaining what had happened. He didn't saw a word to Pete, though. They got home, and he took Pete up to his room and put him on the bed to sleep off the buzz. He went upstairs to find Olga sitting on the edge of the bed crying, wondering what she'd done that was so horrible that two of her children got caught up in drugs and other things that could have killed them. Dan consoled her, explaining that their decisions were not her fault, but she couldn't buy it, not in that moment. Still upset, she stood from the bed and walked downstairs to the first level of the house. She fixed a pot of coffee and then grabbed the phone. It was three in the morning, but she knew that she wasn't going back to sleep. Reluctantly, she dialed Ian's phone number and waited on him to groggily answer. She explained what had happened and all that had been going on and asked Ian the same question she'd been asking herself that whole night: what had she done? Ian told her that she hadn't done anything, just as Dan, but she still couldn't believe it. Distraught themselves, Ian and Joey drove to Olga and Dan's house. Joey sat with Olga and Dan downstairs as Ian sat patiently in Pete's room, waiting on the younger brother to wake up. On the ride over, he'd called Danny, who wasn't happy either, but who decided to stay at home until Pete woke up. He gave Ian explicit instructions to call him the moment that Pete woke up, regardless of how he was feeling.

At around 6:30, Pete began to rustle. Ian pulled out his phone and called Danny, not saying a word to Pete. Danny got dressed and came right over, bypassing talking to the family at all and heading straight for Pete's room. Inside the room, Danny and Ian hugged each other for a second before Danny went into his protective mode.

"Wake up!" he yelled as he pushed Pete who was lying on the bed.

"Wha?" Pete stammered.

"I said WAKE UP!" Danny yelled again. Downstairs, it was all Joey and Dan could do to keep Olga seated at the table. She knew that Danny and Ian would be able to handle this better than she would have, but she was still angry and wasn't sure of how she'd react.

"What the fuck?" Pete yelled as he turned over in the bed, still fully clothed from the night before.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?" Danny screamed at him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Last night! What the fuck were you thinking doing that shit?"

"It was just a party, Danny. Don't get your panties in a wad," Pete said as he stood from the bed. Danny picked him up by the jacket that he was wearing and slung him against the wall. Pete had been swimming for years and had a decent enough body, but he was still no match for Danny, who was bigger than him in so many ways.

"Don't get MY panties in a wad? Do you have ANY idea the grief that you've caused Mom and Dad? Do you know that OUR mother is downstairs crying right now because she thinks that SHE did something wrong?"

"I didn't mean..." Pete said as he started to cry.

"BUT YOU FUCKING DID IT!" Danny yelled into Pete's face. Danny set him down, but if it hadn't been for him being right up against a wall, he would have fallen to the ground. Pete looked at Ian, who was in dead agreement with Danny. Danny turned around, because he didn't want Pete to see the fact that he was starting to cry.

"Get your shit together. Me, you, and Een are going someplace," Danny said.

"I'm not..."

"Oh hell yes you are!" Danny said as he turned back around and pointed a finger in Pete's face. "And if I have to, I will drag your punk ass downstairs and put you in my truck myself!" There was no joking; there was no playing around as Pete grabbed his wallet. "And where are your keys?" Danny asked.

"In my pocket, why?"

"Cause from now until the end of school, I'm going to come by every single morning, pick you up, and take you there. Then I'm going to pick you up in the afternoon, take you to practice with me, and you're going to work your ass off with the girls," Danny said, making reference to his job as a soccer coach at a local high school.

"Danny. That's not fair..."

"Keys," Danny said as he held out his hand.

"No..."

"KEYS!" Danny yelled. Pete gave in and handed Danny the keys to the convertible he'd picked out for his birthday present from Ian, reluctantly. He motioned for Pete to leave the room, which he did. "First, you're going to apologize to Mom and Dad for all the shit you've put them through," Danny instructed.

"I'm sorry," Pete said as he stood in the doorway of the kitchen. Dan was angry; Olga couldn't look at him right then. He tried to give Olga a hug, but she couldn't bear to be touched by her youngest right then.

"Now. To the truck," Danny said as he and Ian followed Pete outside. He still reeked of the night before. "We'll be back," Danny said to the people in the kitchen.

Danny drove through Montevallo, which hadn't changed much since he was growing up. He drove down Highway 25, on a route that he would never forget. Ian knew where he was going, but Pete was just sitting in the back seat of the behemoth vehicle, scared shitless about what was about to happen. It wasn't until they turned into the parking lot of the Anderson Clinic that Pete knew where they were going. A swell of emotion filled through each of them. Each of the three had their own memories of that place, all different, but all intertwined. Danny pulled the truck into a space in front of the facility. He and Ian climbed out.

"Get out," Danny instructed.

"Danny. Een. I swear, I'll never do anything like that again," Pete said as he cried.

"Damn right you won't, now get out of the fucking truck!" Danny said again.

Pete complied, but it was with a bit of hesitation. The three of them walked into the facility. No one there recognized Pete or Danny, but there were still a few people there that remembered when Ian had been a patient a decade or so before. Danny had called ahead of their arrival and explained the situation, so there was a counselor there ready to take Pete around, by himself, without his brothers there to support him. He was shown people going through detox; he was shown the group sessions. The counselor had him work in the garden Ian himself had started, right in the middle of the day, in the blazingly cold winter weather. There was nothing to do but begin arranging rows for the flowers, but he was there, in the dirt. At the end of the day, he walked back into the lobby to find that Danny and Ian were still sitting there, waiting on him. They'd stayed there all day, waiting on him.

"I swear," Pete said as he walked up to Ian and hugged his brother, a brother who'd fought his own battle with drugs and alcohol. He then turned to Danny, who welcomed him into his arms as if nothing had ever changed between them.

When they got back home, Olga had calmed down enough to hug Pete. Dan had plenty of time to think about things as he and Joey sat all day playing dominos. Jen had come by and fixed them all dinner, having just gotten home the day before from a business trip to San Francisco in her position as a newly appointed executive at BrAm records.

That evening, Pete stayed at home, but it was partly because Danny wouldn't let him out of his sight. True to his word, Danny took Pete to school the next Monday and picked him up that afternoon. He took Pete to practice where Pete and Danny ran sprints the whole time as the assistant coaches worked the girls that day. For two hours, Pete and Danny ran up one end of the soccer field and then walked back down. After a week, Danny stopped, but Pete continued. By the time graduation rolled around, Pete was in better shape that he'd been in years. Mong and Chavi had also gotten over their times as well, much to the pleasure of all their parents. The next fall, Pete went to the University of Puerto Rico, where he began studying toward a degree in linguistics. During his senior year, he met a beautiful graduate student who was also studying linguistics. Her name was Leticia, and she was the mother of a one-year old baby boy, named Pablo. The two were friends first, as neither of them wanted a relationship but desired the companionship that the other could offer.

One weekend, when Pablo was visiting his grandmother in Ponce, Danny and Leticia went out to eat. They'd been friends for a few months, but the really knew very little about each other outside of school and a few hobbies that they had in common. Pete explained that his family was a little eccentric, to say the least. His brother had just retired from music and was traveling with his partner. His brother was a soccer coach at a university in Alabama at that point, and his sister-in-law had won American Idol a few years before but was working as a record executive.

She didn't believe him at first, so Pete called Jen. The pair talked for a minute, but she still wasn't convinced. As a little girl, she'd grown up listening to Jen Ruiz's music, but swore the voice didn't sound like Jen. Pete accepted that, because, for the first time, he wasn't using his famous brother or sister-in-law to get into a girl's pants. Instead he invited her to a family gathering in Alabama the next time he went home. She trusted Pete well enough to travel with him, but she still was a little jaded from her exboyfriend. When they arrived in Alabama, Olga and Dan met them at the airport. By the time they got back to the house, Danny and Joey were outside barbecuing while Jen and Ian were sitting in the living room having a cocktail. When she saw them, she was a bit star struck, but Pete smiled. Two weeks later, they were officially together, after having `the talk'. From that point, Pete never looked at another woman the way he looked at his beloved. Four years later, they were married at a ceremony in the Cathedral of All Saints in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Danny also crossed Ian's mind. In so many ways, he was the same man he'd always been. He was still quite athletic; he worked hard for everything he had; he loved as hard as he played and worked. Over the passing of years, Ian had witnessed all the emotions that his brother experienced. When Jen won American Idol, he saw Danny swelling with pride, love, and happiness. When they were married, he saw the same things. When he saw Danny's teams win a game, he saw Danny's happiness. When they lost, he saw his disappointment for the girls that he coached. When Jen lost three consecutive pregnancies after that first one so long before that moment, he saw Danny, even though weak in his mind alone, be strong for everyone around. It was him that managed to bring Jen back from the emotional brink. When she did finally get pregnant, he was both excited and cautious at the same time. If experience had taught him anything, it was to prepare for the worst, but hope with everything for the best. When Maria was born, Ian watched as Danny held her for the first time, beaming with pride. In his mind, she was a big as him, despite the fact that he dwarfed her. In a moment, he saw a certain immaturity that Danny had always possessed float away as he turned into one of the greatest fathers the world had ever known.

Ian thought about how, after Jen won her award, he was there with her until she insisted that he go back to school. When he graduated from college with a business degree, she knew that's not what he wanted, so she convinced him to follow his dream of coaching something. He chose soccer, landing a job as an assistant coach first at a local high school, and then the head coach. He left the school only after receiving an offer from the University of Alabama at Birmingham to coach their women's soccer team. When he secured that job, it became a running joke in the family about how Danny had gotten his wish: to be surrounded his whole life by women. The joking was intensified when his daughter was born, of course.

Danny's biggest personal moment came in 2024 when he was offered his dream job', to work as head coach for the United States Olympic Soccer Team. He'd applied for the position when he found it was open, but he KNEW that he wouldn't get it. Despite that, he still went to all the interviews. He went to all the meetings. He gave it his best shot, like he did with everything else in his life. Maria became an unofficial mascot for the team, who all treated her, as she grew, as an equal. When the Olympic finals were underway, the whole family came to the final game, held in Birmingham. Ian, in his green and yellow coat, held Maria up in the USA jersey that she'd been given by the team. She cheered when the US scored one goal in the first period. She was upset when Brazil scored against the US in the second. When it came down to the final minutes of the third period, when the whole crowd was on its feet rooting for their respective teams, she was screaming almost louder than anyone else for Daddy's team', as she called it. As the final minute came, and the score was tied, she was screaming each of the players' names, urging them in their own way to beat the hell out of the Brazilians. At one point, she looked at Ian and smiled, knowing that he was outwardly showing support for the Brazilians, but was secretly hoping that Danny's team would take the gold. Then, the US took control of the ball and quickly drove it to the other end of the field. The Brazilian goaltender was ready, getting into a position to block the ball from going into the net. One of the best players in the history of American soccer kicked the ball with all his force, and the world seemed to stand still. The ball seemed to be flying through the air in slow motion as everyone watched. The Brazilian goaltender moved to block the shot, but the ball skipped over the very tip of his fingers and slid into the net. It was as if Birmingham, America, and the world all watched and cheered as the American team, under the auspices of an ethnic Brazilian, went on to win, for the very first time, a gold medal in men's soccer. The guy who shot the goal ripped off his jersey and ran across the field to his teammates, who promptly lifted him up into the air. Danny walked out onto the field and joined in the cheering team before walking to midfield and shaking the hand of the Brazilian coach, who'd fought along with his team a hard fight to win Brazil's first Olympic gold in men's soccer. Danny looked right up to where the family was seated to see Jen holding her hands over her face crying in pleasure. Maria, still in Ian's arms was waving a small American flag as Ian, Joey, and the rest of the family were cheering for Danny.

As had been the tradition at the Olympics in Birmingham, the national anthems of the world were sung rather than just played. Jen was the singer assigned to sing the national anthem if the US won gold in soccer, and sing with pride she did as the flag was raised and gold medals were placed around the neck of Danny's team.

When it came time for Pete's wedding, he was still glowing from the victory, despite the fact that he went back to work after only taking a month off before preparation for the 2032 Dili Games.

Later that night, after everyone had either left or gone to bed, Ian was still awake. It had been a long day, but nevertheless an enjoyable one. Ian sipped a cup of coffee at one of the tables set up on the large outside deck. It was almost four in the morning, but he couldn't sleep, so he decided to stay up and enjoy a cup of coffee. The day had been a very pensive one for him. He'd recalled so many things about so many people, including himself. He'd thought, as he played earlier in the day, about how his life wouldn't have been the same had it not been for his mother's and Dan's tough love, his brothers' subconscious decisions not to let him go so easily. He thought about "Year of the Een" and how it had produced several number one hits in both English and Portuguese. He thought about how it's follow-up, `Ao céu' had been equally a success when it was released in 2010. He thought about all the CDs that were to follow, and how he loved making music that people actually enjoyed. Few ever spoke of the horrid CD he'd recorded when he was high, especially when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023. He then remembered his retirement, and how nothing pleased him more than to simply be with Joey, in every single sense of the phrase. To be a half-century old, he thought, it had been an amazing ride, complete with ups and downs, highs and lows. It had been filled with love, patience, understanding, drama, drama, more drama, intense pleasure, and intense pain. It had been one in which, over the decades, he realized that he hadn't regretted a single bit. It had been one that he'd enjoyed, doing what and who he loved for so very long. He missed Dan; he missed Nana; however, he knew that they were in a better place, enjoying the beers they both loved and getting a good laugh at the goings on in the world.

At around 4:30, Joey came hobbling, half asleep, out of the house with a wicked smile on his face. In his hand was a black back pack in which they kept all the necessary equipment for a `session' on the beach. Ian smiled back, stood from the table, and took Joey's hand as they walked to a secluded space behind some rocks, their place, as it was, and made love until the sun came up.